Closed phone call: Ilsa, Egon, Nall, Luka (if she's interested)
Ilsa told me about this "Halloween" thing, and I'm just... I mean... it's awesome! [He's all giddy, in need of some fun.] I was thinking we could get together, plan out costumes, and I could design. But I need some help -- there are supposed to be devices for sewing, and there must be sources for fabrics and makeup, and I'll need some shop
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[When she gets to the garage she will see something few have been allowed to witness: Tarvek, in designer-mode, sitting tailor-fashion on a big workbench he's dragged out from a side wall. It was intended by someone for wood work, or mechanical efforts, but he's pinned sheets over it to provide a smooth surface for future work with fine fabrics. He's surrounded by piles of paper, already drawn on. His hair is disheveled, even with the help of the ponytail to keep it orderly -- he's clearly run his fingers into it as he designs. He's also managed to lodge an assortment of colored pencils and pens, as well as tucking a couple behind his ears. When he looks at her, his eyes sparkle, with excitement, and the first hits of returning talents...]
Liebchen, so many drawings for you to look at -- and we must get a dressmaker's dummy. So hard to drape without a dummy to work on. We'll pad it to match your measurements...
[His arms move, hands flare, as he gestures around the room, points to where he wants his dummy to go, illustrates her curves. It's possible no one has been allowed to see Tarvek this content and excited in his entire life... or at the very least since he was sent away from Castle Wulfenbach.]
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[ Ilsa is starting to realize what he was talking about when Tarvek was describing a Spark in creative mode. He's removed the cars, his favorite things in Mayfield, from the garage for this project. ]
Have you slept at all since yesterday?
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I can always sleep. Right now, I design!
Here, look:
[He hands her a sheet of paper, with a drawing that's clearly her, dressed in a sweeping dress that combines the lines of a fifties "housewife" dress -- wide, flared skirts, fitted bodice, mid-calf hem -- with the eye and detailing of an Elizabethan designer. A modified combination of sweetheart neckline and high-collared Queen Anne give a faintly Disney Princess look. It's hard to be sure of fabrics in a drawing, but his work hints of midnight brocade picked out with glittering rhinestones, all swathed in a shimmering sheer illusion wrap. There's a silver crown with gold tracing, edged with pearls and sapphire, and a scepter that is almost, but not quite a wand.]
The Queen of the Night, love. [Blushes.] Which you are.
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I never saw this part of the design process.
[ Sure, that's why she's unsettled... and there's a bridge in New York that's very affordable right now, just in your budget range. ]
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You don't like that one? Hang on, hang on, I had this one...
[Hands her a mermaid drawing -- not in the blues and greens so often used for campy mermaid outfits, but in coppers and golds and strange, golden-green-sage tones, like a half-wild koi. Rather than a true tail, he's designed a froth of pleats that spread out from the close-cut "body." The main outfit appears to be bias cut, to cling.]
I was thinking a sheer two-toned chiffon, with a dappled bleach pattern, all over a watered copper satin, with starched georgette for the fins, solid enough to hold hard pleats.
Or... here's another, simpler: you can be a tigress. I worked out a way to make the stripes seem to ripple as you walk...
[He's handing her more drawings, and more, caught between concern she doesn't like this, and excitement at his own ideas...]
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[ His excitement is contagious. ]
I still don't know what we'll be doing, other than handing out candy to the neighborhood kids.
[ She looks concerned a moment. ]
... 'bibi, can I ask for one design feature? No major change, but... which of these has the greatest ease of movement?
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It's not very inventive, but....
[Pulls out a sheet with a tiger costume: Laura Petri capris and sweater, but worked in oranges and creams and black stripes, and a bold, patterned helmet/mask that feels slightly kabuki.]
It's knit--rather revealing. But you can do anything you like in it, if you don't mind the cling.
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[ She looks at it with the eye to combat. ]
This would work very well, I think... no obvious preparation... if it comes to a fight, I think this will work.
[ Her eye is drawn to the mermaid gown. ]
But... if we have an event for fancy dress...?
[ She raises her eyebrow with a smile, fingering the edge of the drawing. ]
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Ok. I'll have to get to work designing the knitting machine I want for the costume: I have some ideas about double-level knits and transparencies that can be customized. The headpiece I can begin on right away. I'll be adding some armor under the surface, and I'll try to build at least some hidden protection into the rest of the costume. What you're looking for won't hide much, but it's smart to include something. Guard the bones and vital organs.
As for the dress...
[Seems almost to purr....]
I have all sorts of ideas. But if you like that one, we can start there....
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[ Not going to leave him out of the fun, after all. ]
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[Covers the poleaxed feeling by flirting...]
Hmmmm. What would you like? Another tiger, to keep you company? A lion? A pirate?
[He actually does wonder what she would like. He's been so caught in Mayfield, between who he was, and who Mayfield forces him to be... what roles might he play, to amuse her? To amuse himself?]
[For a brief second images himself as a wild highwayman, in a caped coat, hair loose in the wind. Tries not to giggle at the Fabio image...]
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Hmm... lions and tigers and bears? No, bears belong on the highway, by the reports I have. Tell me...
[ She leans in close, murmuring in his ear. ]
Is there something you want to be? Something... wild?
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[The look needs a really GREAT greatcoat. And a death ray, yes. And a hat... and...]
[His eyes start to lose focus, as design cuts in. He forces himself back.]
Um. Maaaaaybe. You want to be careful though, liebchen. It's just the sort of man who might go on a tiger hunt.
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[ No, that wasn't a purr at all. ]
[ Yes, it was. ]
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[He's normally a baritone, and one whose voice is still descending. Right now it descends, and he rumbles like a suggestive bass note on an organ. It's a purr in its own right.]
[He isn't as new at this as he used to be...]
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